3. Terminology

Most of my semantic terminology will be introduced as needed, in the context of explaining my theory. Syntactic terms, however, together with some fine-grained semantic terms, are more easily introduced up front. An understanding of these terms may be solidified by inspecting the modules in the Words subdirectory of the source code.

Notably absent from the list below are adjectives, which encode what I call properties. Properties are currently unearthed variables in my model (in the sense explained in the page on plain messages, section 4). This means that users must encode properties for themselves, inputting the resulting adjectives directly into the system. Consequently I have no use at present for an Adjectives module.

1. Nouns and Pronouns

Categories are encoded in nouns. Like properties, these are currently unearthed variables in my model, which users are obliged to encode for themselves. The Nouns module, however, exposes a function for converting the singular form of a noun into its corresponding plural. This is done by first looking the noun up in a dictionary of irregularities, and failing that by guessing the appropriate form ("-y" -> "-ies", "-ch" -> "ches", etc.).

Objects are encoded in pronouns. (See the page on plain messages, section 2 for an account of objects.) Pronouns come in five forms, three direct and two relative, as follows:

The Pronouns module exposes five functions, one for each of these forms.

2. Verbs and Modals

Verbalities are encoded in verbs. Like properties and categories, these are currently unearthed variables in my model, which users are obliged to encode for themselves. The Verbs module, however, exposes some functions for generating the various inflectional forms of a verb from its base form. As with nouns, this is done by first looking the verb up in a dictionary of irregularities, and failing that by guessing the appropriate form.

With the exception of the verb "be", which I will come to in a moment, the English verbs all come in five forms: a base form, two finite forms, and two participle forms. Thus:

Note that the second finite form and the second participle form are the same for all regular verbs (and for some otherwise irregular verbs too). Nevertheless it is convenient to draw the distinction in every case, as this makes for a simpler encoding function overall.

The uniquely irregular verb "be" has a base form and two participle forms like any other verb ("be", "being", "been"). Where the other verbs have two finite forms, however, this verb has five: "am", "is", "are", "was", and "were".

Modalities are encoded in modals. These are somewhat akin to verbs, but have only finite forms (and some of them only one finite form at that):

On semantic grounds, I diagnose "ought" as a second finite form, and "need" as ambiguous between a first and a second finite form. See the page on displacers, sections 3 and 4 for details.

Following standard practice, I also refer to the present tense and past tense forms of the verbs and modals. In the case of the modals, these correspond directly to the first and second finite forms respectively. In the case of the verb "be", the present tense is realised by the first three finite forms ("am", "is", "are"), and the past tense is realised by the last two ("was", "were"). With all other verbs, the present tense is realised by the base form and the first finite form (e.g. "do", "does"; "have", "has"), and the past tense corresponds simply to the second finite form ("did", "had", etc.). When the present or past tense can be realised by more than one form, the choice of form is determined by the object, and encodes no additional information.

3. Prepositions, Articles, and Determiners

Relators are encoded in prepositions, pointers are encoded in articles, and quantifiers are encoded in determiners. There is very little to say about any of this. For my account of relators, see the page on plain messages, section 2; for my account of pointers and quantifiers, see the page on pointers and quantifiers.

It may just be noted that my syntactic terminology here is not entirely standard, in that I count the so-called “indefinite article” ("a"/"an") as a determiner rather than an article. The articles, for me, are "the", "this", "that", "these", and "those". The determiners are words like "all", "any", "each", "most", "some", and I classify "a"/"an" alongside these words on semantic grounds.

4. Fulcrums and Counters

In addition to the modules covered above, which contain functions for encoding individual informational choices into words, there are also two modules for encoding some small groups of choices into longer phrases. Pivots, which comprise a verbality followed by an optional status, are encoded into fulcrums. Balances, which consist of an object optionally prefixed with a relator, are encoded into counters. For my account of pivots and balances, see the page on plain messages.